Last Updated on April 12, 2022 by Successful Black Parenting Staff

Mentoring, Arts and Crafts for Your Child

According to the Smithsonian, “Two hundred years ago, an African American girl made history—literally. She was an indentured servant named Grace Wisher in the household of Mary Pickersgill.” Grace was the daughter of a mother too poor to support her children. She placed Grace, at age 10, in an apprenticeship with Mary. In return for teaching Grace a trade, Mary gained a servant for six years.

Mary became famous for having made the flag that inspired the song, The Star Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Key and Grace was one of the people that helped Mary sew the flag.

the star spangled flag before being restored. (source: wikimedia)

In addition to Grace, there was an African American slave women who also helped sew the flag. The fact that Mary was aided by two African Americans has only come to light in recent history. In the past, none of Mary’s flag making team received any credit for making the famous flag, but since their contribution has come to light, it would be inaccurate to tell this story without Grace or the slave woman who also resided with Mary.

star spangled banner house where mary & grace lived and sewed the flag.

Major General George Armistead commissioned Mary to make a flag measuring 30 by 42 feet with 15 stars and 15 stripes (each star and stripe representing a state), that’s a flag that is as big as a three-story building,  a size that impresses even now.  It was indeed a large flag, and Armistead wanted it as soon as possible. With these instructions, Mary called in all the help she could. Mary was joined by her elderly mother, three nieces, the unknown slave woman and little Grace. It took them six weeks to finish the flag. The flag has been restored by conservators at the Smithsonian, and it now hangs in the American History Museum in Washington, D.C. where you can see it today.

The home where Mary and Grace lived is now a museum called the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore, Maryland.

(Sources: Smithsonian and America Comes Alive). 

Grace Wisher’s Flag

• Felt (red, green & black)
• Large black felt piece (1 yard at 60″)
• 36 by 30 inch piece of cardboard.
• Scissors
• Glue (hot glue or white glue)

the african-american flag and the pan-african flag, both representing the african diaspora.

Artist David Hammons’ created the African American Flag (left) in 1990, which is a part of the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) created the Pan-African flag (right) with the wide bands of red, black and green in 1920. The color red represents “the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry, and shed for liberation.” The color black is for “the people whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, is affirmed by the existence of the flag,” and the color green is for the land and “the abundant natural wealth of Africa.”